Brown said Rodriguez realized who the intruder was only after the single shot was fired.

Borrego "had been coming uninvited. He had been told not to be in the house," Brown said.

Rodriguez had his first top 10 hit in 1972 with "Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through)." He moved to the top of Billboard's Country Hit List with "You Always Come Back (to Hurting Me)" and again when he wrote and recorded "Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico."

More than a dozen of the singer's albums and singles landed in the top 10.

But his career suffered when he began to abuse drugs and alcohol, Rodriguez has said.